A New Face, a New Life?
by tuatara
Summary: "What if Jusenkyo curses were permanent?" It's a question often asked, but here's a look at one possible consequence...  All it took was a little splash, and *his* life was changed forever. But is that entirely a bad thing?
1. Chapter 1: Here's…Akane?

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Ranma ½_. I am not profiting from this story in any way. So there!

**Introduction:** This is something of a pilot while I work on a number of longer-term projects. Whether or not I continue it will be in part determined by what kind of response it receives. If I do return to this story, I'll likely be revising this first chapter considerably. As it's the first piece I'm sharing on this site, I'm quite interested in any and all input. Not to worry, I'm prepared for harsh comments. After all, I haven't exactly been reserved in expressing negative opinions of others' work. (Though after some recent unhappy episodes, I think I'm about done with writing bad reviews.)

So if you think it's lame, have at it! On the other hand, if you're actually interested in what I've come up with here, please let me know that too! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

(Special thanks to Richard Ryley, zeltronica and Noy Telin'u for their invaluable input.)

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**A New Face, a New Life?**  
>by tuatara<p>

Chapter 1: Here's…_Akane?_

.

It's a well-known story. A cute redheaded girl and a giant panda argue on a city street. A father calls for his three daughters after receiving a postcard. Guests are on the way. The pigtailed redhead and panda arrive, much to the disappointment of the father. They were expecting a boy, after all.

Yet his youngest is not deterred, offering the new girl her hand in friendship. An impromptu match is held, and the redhead trounces her new friend and host. "I'd hate to lose to a boy," the bluish-black-haired girl says, missing the deeply pained expression that crosses her companion's face.

Bath time follows, but once the youngest daughter enters the furo, events proceed in a new direction.

"Oh! Ranma! I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were in here," Akane apologized.

"I- it's fine, Akane. I was just f- finishing up," the other girl explained, all the while blushing furiously and making sure not to look in Akane's direction.

Noting Ranma's discomfort, the Tendo girl frowned slightly. "You don't need to be nervous. I'm not going to bite, you know! Is it that you haven't bathed with other girls much?" she asked in what she hoped was a warm and encouraging tone.

"H- hai. I guess you could say that," Ranma answered, still studiously avoiding looking at her new friend.

Akane sighed. "It'll be fine, I promise. Why don't you wash my back for me and then I'll do yours, okay? Then we can have a nice soak in the furo and let our muscles relax. Sound good?"

"S- sure," the pigtailed girl replied, sitting down on one of the washing stools.

Taking a seat next to her, Akane began soaping herself up. "Since we have some time to talk, why don't you tell me about yourself. You're a pretty amazing martial artist. How long have you been training?"

On more familiar ground, Ranma managed a smirk. "Well, I _am_ the best. An' I should be…I've only been practicin' the Art for as long as I can remember. Me an' Pop've been on the road trainin' for about ten years now. We've been all over Japan…an' we just got back from China," she said, ending with a long, frustrated sigh.

Not wanting to distress her friend, Akane chose not to inquire for the time being into why the subject of China seemed to upset Ranma so. Instead, she latched onto another part of the redhead's comment.

"Wow, no wonder you were nervous to bathe with me if it's just been you and your dad for so long. Hey, that's right! Where _is_ your father? Daddy said that the two of you would be arriving…though he sure didn't say anything about a panda!" Akane said with a laugh.

Forcing a smile, Ranma replied, "Yeah, those two questions kinda have the same answer. But, um…let's not worry 'bout that right now. Maybe we can talk about it later, alright?"

"Well, I guess that's fair enough. Now then, ready to wash my back?" Akane asked with a grin.

Ranma gulped, shutting her eyes tightly and resigning herself to her fate. "Okay," she sighed.

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A short time later, the two girls rejoined Akane's sisters, Kasumi and Nabiki, her father, Tendo Soun, and Ranma's panda companion.

"Ranma! Your bear here is a fascinating creature. How did you train it to converse with people so well? And where does he get all those signs? It's almost as if he has a human mind! Perhaps not a very developed one, but certainly more than I'd expect from such a beast," Soun observed, earning a low growl from said beast.

The redhead snickered, greatly amused by the Tendo patriarch's unintended insult. "Yeah, he ain't exactly a genius, but he does know how to use those signs of his. I guess he picked that little skill up when we were headin' back to Japan. But all he's _really_ good for is as a punchin' bag when I'm trainin'."

"You mean you _beat_ the poor thing?" Akane gasped. "How awful!" Perhaps she'd misjudged the girl.

"Nah, it ain't like that!" Ranma protested, holding up her hands in a warding gesture. "He fights back too! He's actually pretty good, I gotta admit."

Somewhat mollified by the explanation, Akane sat down next to her sisters.

The panda held up a sign—a series of signs, in fact, without any obvious explanation of where they originated—that read, "I'm better than YOU, boy! Better than you'll EVER be! Don't you forget it!"

"A bear that practices martial arts? And so boastful too. Extraordinary! Did your father teach him? I ask because, well, he seems to be convinced that _he's_ Saotome Genma. Imagine it! An animal claiming to be a man!" Soun chuckled. "Ah, yes…he's also rather insistent that you're actually a boy. But that's obviously not the case, as you're still in one piece. I'm sure we would have heard from Akane if you weren't a girl—quite loudly, I suspect."

The youngest Tendo eyed the red-haired girl warily, her eyebrow arched in suspicion.

"Aw, he's just a practical joker…always messin' around like that. Sayin' he's Pop, or that I'm a boy, or some other crazy thing! Heh. Yeah, he's a real kidder…" Ranma insisted, albeit not too successfully.

"Lies! What are you trying to pull, boy? Are you looking to make a fool out of me ! ? This is all your fault in the first place, so you should be the one to explain it!" the bear signed.

"_My_ fault! ? You're the one who got us into this mess, old man! Ow!" the pigtailed girl yelped, one of the panda's signs having just impacted with the side of her skull. "Damn it, Pop! What's your problem?" Ranma snapped. She immediately winced, realizing she'd just blown a huge hole through her cover story.

"Ranma…you do know what you just said, don't you?" Soun asked.

Against her better judgment, she decided it was time to set things straight. "Yeah, 'bout that…" she began, sitting down to tell her tale.

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"You mean I'm _stuck_ like this! ? _Forever! ?_" the newly female Saotome Ranma screeched, assaulting the eardrums of both man and beast alike. It just so happened that her present company included one short, squat middle-aged man and one rotund giant panda.

"Sorry, Mister Customer…you Miss Customer now. Is no cure, at least no safe one," the man replied as he tended to the fire in his small cabin. Ranma and her formerly human father Genma sat on the opposite side of the fire, the girl wrapped in a towel to dry off and warm up after her involuntary dunking in the pool of sorrow known as the Nyanniichuan, or Spring of Drowned Girl.

"Wait, whaddaya mean, 'no safe one'?" Ranma asked, eager to grasp onto any shred of hope that she wouldn't be forced to live the rest of her days as a weak, pathetic _girl_.

"It better if Miss Customer accept curse, yes? Other choice very risky. _Very_ dangerous. This one never seen it succeed in all years here at Jusenkyo," he explained, retrieving a small stoppered vial of water from a nearby shelf.

"What is it! ? Just spit it out already!" the redhead demanded, both girl and bear crowding in around the hapless guide.

"There other spring! Nanniichuan!" he explained, holding up the vial. "Very tragic story of man who-"

"Get on with it!" the pigtailed neo-girl interrupted.

"Aiyah! This one sorry, Miss Customer. Nanniichuan make mens of what fall in it, yes? It _might_ do same for you. But-"

"Well, why didn't ya say so in the first place! ? You were all eager to stop us from goin' anywhere when I got outta the spring, so why didn't ya just take us to this Nanniichuan right then and there! ?" Ranma shouted, apparently still not yet conscious of the piercing quality her new voice possessed when pushed to its limit. The ears of Genma and the Jusenkyo Guide were only all _too_ aware, however.

"That the problem, Miss Customer. This one never seen it work that way. Many try use Nanniichuan or Nyanniichuan to return to original form. Most become mix. For Mister Customer, he might be bear-man. People think he demon and shoot. Miss Customer probably be man-woman. That no good, yes?"

"Man-woman…you mean, like, half an' half or somethin'? That's even worse! Why'd ya even mention it then?" she lamented, staring forlornly at the vial in the guide's hand.

"That because records say some people return to original bodies. But it not happen in many, many year."

"Dammit…hey, waitaminute. You said, _most_ become a mix. What about the rest?" Ranma asked, worried about the answer.

"Oh, that easy. They die. Usually just fall over dead. Sometime it take a while though," the guide explained rather casually. "This one not see it, but last Jusenkyo Guide say one man who use Nanniichuan explode on spot. Aiyah, what mess that would be!"

Both Ranma and Genma were wide-eyed and pale, which was a particularly impressive feat for a panda. "Ex…ploded?" the girl whispered. It was actually _worse_ than she feared. With a heavy sigh, she asked, "An' you ain't never heard of a cure somewhere?"

The guide shook his head. "Sorry, Miss Customer. But there village of mighty warrior womens not far from here. They live here long time and maybe know more about cure. This one can take Honored Customers there, yes?"

"Well, it beats stayin' here," Ranma agreed. "Why don't ya head on out, Pop? I wanna dry off a bit more before goin' back out on the road. Don't wanna catch a cold on top of everything else, y'know."

The panda known as Genma grunted his acknowledgment before grabbing his pack and lumbering out of the hut.

Once he departed, Ranma turned to the guide and addressed him in a whisper. "Hey, couldja lemme have that vial?"

"Why Miss Customer want? You listen to what this one told you, yes?"

"Shh! I know, I know…but I wanna have it as a fallback if worst comes to worst. 'Sides, maybe I can find somebody who knows 'bout magic an' potions an' stuff who could use it to help me an' Pop," she explained. "Just don't say nothin' 'bout it to Pop, 'kay? Knowin' him, he'll do somethin' stupid as soon as he hears about it."

"Aiyah…if Miss Customer want, this one not mind," he replied, handing the vial of cursed water to the cursed girl before collecting his things and putting out the fire.

The redhead stowed the vial away deep in her pack, hoping her father wouldn't find it. "Hey, Pop! Wait up, will ya?" she shouted as she and the guide headed out of the shack after the panda.

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"…An' after swimmin' across the sea, we came here," she finished, making sure to leave out the fact that she brought the vial of Nanniichuan water with her.

Three clearly skeptical female faces stared back at her, the youngest of them with a wary look in her eye. The girls' father, on the other hand, had begun openly weeping.

"Oh, how terrible! The legendary Pools of Sorrow…their true horrors have remained a mystery until now. And now the schools will never be joined!" the Tendo patriarch wailed.

"Tendo!" the panda man signed, embracing his weeping friend.

"Saotome!" Soun shouted, returning the "manly" embrace.

Their children could only look on in confusion and embarrassment.

"Wait, what?" Ranma interjected. "'Joinin' the schools'? What's goin' on here, Pop?" she asked, glaring at her panda-fied father.

"It's what you were expected to do! Oh, to have such a weak son that he would let his manhood be taken from him so easily!" Genma's signs complained.

"Weak! ? _Weak! ?_ What about _you_, huh? At least I'm still _human_!" she shouted.

As the Saotomes continued to bicker, the middle Tendo daughter addressed her father.

"You don't really _believe_ them, do you, Daddy?" Nabiki asked, turning a disdainful eye to the heated interspecies argument.

"I realize it may seem hard to believe, but I've no doubt that they are indeed my old friend and his son transformed," Soun replied.

"But there's no such thing as magic!" Nabiki argued.

"I have to agree with Nabiki, Father. Ranma seems like a nice girl, but that story does seem a little hard to believe," the eldest daughter, Kasumi, chimed in.

"I know, sweetheart, but if you knew Saotome as I do, you would see that the panda could only be he," her father explained.

Silent until now, the youngest Tendo girl finally spoke up.

"Ranma…" she began coolly, gaining the attention of the pigtailed girl as well as the rest of the rest of the room's occupants.

"Uh…yeah, Akane? Wh- what's up?" the cursed girl asked nervously, her senses screaming that danger was imminent.

"So, you're saying that you're really a boy…and you took a bath with me anyway? Is that it?" Akane asked, her brown eyes boring into Ranma's blue.

"Wait, Akane! Please don't be mad! I promise I never peeked or nothin'! Honest! But what was I gonna say? 'Sorry, gotta go, I'm really a guy'? You woulda thought I was crazy!" Ranma exclaimed in a panic.

"Y- yes! That's _exactly_ what you should've-" Akane sputtered, her face turning beet red. "…Although you're right, I wouldn't have believed you," she eventually admitted through clenched teeth.

"And why exactly do you believe her _now_?" Nabiki interjected. "Oh, relax, Akane. She's just making this up for attention or something. Besides, there's no proof!"

"Hey!" the Saotome girl protested, though her complaint fell on deaf ears.

Before she could muster a proper defense of the middle daughter's accusations, the panda offered a response of his own. "Ha! You want proof, girl? Then behold!" his signs declared. He swiftly pulled out a small stoppered vial. (From where, no one could say; perhaps the same place he drew the signs.)

Ranma was horrified at seeing the vial, certain that its presence would bring some measure of catastrophe.

"Dammit, Pop! I told ya to stay the hell outta my stuff! When'd ya grab it! ?" she shouted.

"While you were off in the bath, boy. I knew you were holding out on me!" the panda signed, affecting an air of smug superiority. "Now it's time to free myself of this wretched form once and for all!" Genma proclaimed, yanking the rubber stopper from the vial with his great furred paw and tossing it aside.

"Baka Oyaji! What the hell are ya doin'! ? Do you wanna end up lookin' like some kinda monster? Or worse yet…_explode?_" the bear's daughter snapped.

"I don't care about the risks anymore, boy! I refuse to live out the rest of my days as a foul-smelling _animal!_" he signed angrily, preparing to douse himself with the Nanniichuan water.

"Man, you stank _before_ Jusenkyo, Pop! Anyways, I _need_ that water so I can find us a cure!" the redhead snarled, springing into action to prevent her father's possible demise.

The Tendos watched the girl and bear struggle over the vial with a growing sense of alarm.

"Ranma, is that…" Akane asked, her eyes tracking the vial as the panda tossed it from hand to hand—or paw to paw, as the case may be—in an elaborate game of "keep away."

"Yeah, it's Drowned Man water. Y'all should prob'ly get outta here while you can," she warned. It was advice Kasumi and Nabiki were quick to follow, as they moved to the room's entrance where they could watch the bizarre display of close-quarters acrobatics between ursine father and human daughter without fear of becoming collateral damage.

The girls' father had apparently decided that he needn't be worried. He was already a man, Soun concluded, so what harm could the cursed water do him? Instead, he simply watched the Saotomes duel for the vial, critiquing each fighters' form. As expected, he found both father and "son" to be exemplary martial artists…especially since one of them wasn't even human.

While the Tendo patriarch may have been studying the contest with an expert's eye, his youngest daughter was absolutely captivated. Akane had never seen such speed and complexity. _'Wow…she was really holding back on me, wasn't she? What if I could learn to do that? Sugoi!'_ she exclaimed to herself in wonder.

"Akane? Hey, Akane!" Nabiki yelled, finally getting her sister's attention. "Get over here. You don't want that, that…_whatever it is_ to get on you!"

Jarred from her reverie, Akane gave her older sister a smirk. "What's the problem, Onee-chan? I thought you didn't believe in magic," she noted slyly as the Saotomes crashed into the wall behind her, finally startling the youngest Tendo to her feet.

"Well, they seem pretty convinced it does _something_, and I'm not eager to volunteer as a test subject! C'mon already!" Nabiki urged.

"Hai, hai," Akane agreed, moving towards her sisters…only to find a glass vial suddenly whizzing past her face, a red-haired blur following right behind.

"Phew! That was close, huh, Akane?" Ranma noted in relief after catching the vial. "That woulda been awful if it had-" she began, only to whirl around and deflect an inbound sign from her panda father. (The sign, appropriately enough, instructing Ranma to "Think fast!")

However, as Ranma pivoted to fend off her father's latest salvo, the ball of her foot slid over a tiny unnoticed object on the floor—the discarded rubber stopper from the vial. That minutestumble, lasting just a fraction of a second, provided fate all the opportunity it needed. Though Ranma caught the vial before it could fully slip from her grasp, its contents had already splashed out…

…Directly into Akane's face.

"-Spilled," Ranma finished in a stunned whisper.

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Akane clenched her eyes shut reflexively as the small splash of water hit her head on. Instantly, she knew something was wrong. Her body ached, as if her clothes were suddenly much too constrictive. She felt vaguely dizzy, which she already suspected was due to her center of balance shifting considerably.

Without even opening her eyes, Akane knew that her life had just changed on a deep and fundamental level. But she kept them shut for long moments after that realization, as if by keeping the outside world at bay she could hold off the certainty that she was no longer a "she" at all.

"Akane?" Ranma ventured. "You in there?"

Cracking an eye to peer at her, Akane was taken aback by the fact that the pigtailed girl watching with a mixture of worry and shame appeared to be dramatically shorter than just a few moments before. _'Baka…she didn't shrink. Look around. Everything seems smaller. You grew…by a_ lot_, it seems,'_ Akane concluded ruefully.

"Ranma…" Akane began, only to gasp at how much deeper this newly-acquired voice was than that of her birth form. There was no longer any doubt. In a flash, the girl known as Tendo Akane had ceased to exist. In her place was…

Akane had no answer as of yet, as _he_ was currently much too preoccupied with preventing a nervous breakdown.

"Akane," Ranma began again, scratching the back of her head anxiously and refusing to meet his gaze, "I'm really, _really_ sorry about this."

"Ranma," he replied in a whisper, trying to de-emphasize his unmistakably masculine tone, "I…I know you didn't mean it. It was an accident."

If anything, the redhead only looked _more_ stricken. "But, but I shoulda been able to catch it in time. I shouldn't've let the fat, stupid panda get it to begin with. I…damn, I dunno what to say," she concluded with a weary sigh.

"It's alright, Ranma. Hey…look at me," Akane insisted. The Tendo boy locked eyes with the Saotome girl, brown eyes searching blue in an intense gaze that seemed to last for ages before he finally rejoined his train of thought. "Um…right. Yeah. I'm not mad. I promise we're still friends, so don't worry about that, okay?" he said, offering a reassuring smile—or as much of one as he could offer under the circumstances.

"O- okay," Ranma acknowledged, clearing her head. She wondered why her cheeks felt ever so slightly warmer than they had a moment ago.

"Hey, Otou-san…eh? Kasumi? Nabiki?" the neo-boy inquired, only to find that his father and sisters had all fainted from shock. Not surprisingly, the one most responsible for what was sure to be the complete upturning of Akane's life had long since made himself scarce.

"Great…just great," Akane muttered.

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"Okay, here we go, Akane," Ranma encouraged as they stood before the bathroom mirror. "I know it's scary, but it's better just to get it over and done with. Believe me," she noted, squeezing the taller boy's arm in support.

"R- right…just get it over with," he agreed, finally lifting his gaze to the mirror.

As much as he understood his situation rationally, Akane was still woefully unprepared for the face he found staring back at him.

It was a _boy_. An actual, flesh-and-blood boy…and a _handsome_ one, at that. A long mane of dark brown hair just shy of true black hung behind him, strikingly reminiscent of his father. His features were a little sharper, but not full of hard angles as with some of the more athletic boys of his age he'd seen from time to time. In fact, if Akane had to pick a single adjective to describe the boy he saw in the mirror, it would be…

_'Bishounen? Me? No, no way,'_ he insisted, the eerie calm of post-traumatic shock that had been driving him finally fleeing in the face (quite literally) of his change. _'This can't be…me. But, but he's the one looking back at me. And those…those are _my_ eyes, aren't they?'_

Indeed they were. The rest of him may have screamed "Tendo Akane's hunky big brother" ("big" being the operative term, as he now towered some 18 centimeters over his previous height). His chocolate-brown eyes, however, were unquestionably the same as hers. They spoke of a frightened girl thrust into a world well beyond her understanding, a girl whose ability to cope had been rapidly pushed to its limits.

Turning away from the reflection he wanted desperately to deny, Akane fell to his knees. Wrapping his arms around himself in an attempt to find some measure of comfort, he only managed to underscore how different he was now. He was quickly overwhelmed by the feel of strong, muscular arms holding tight against a firm, well-defined and decidedly _male_ torso. Akane began to hyperventilate, unable to hold back the panic any longer.

"Akane! Hey, Akane! Listen, it's gonna be okay," the red-haired girl assured. "It may not feel like it right now, but it'll be okay. I'm still goin', right? I ain't gonna let some damn curse beat me! I know you can do it too, Akane," Ranma said warmly, putting her hands on the boy's shoulders.

"An' anyways, you won't hafta go through it alone," she added.

"Wha…huh?" Akane managed, focusing on the girl's words. "I won't?"

Ranma could see the spark of hope return to his eyes. "'Course not! I got you into this mess…ya think I'm just gonna leave ya high 'n' dry? Is that what a friend would do? 'Sides, I'm thinkin' maybe we can help each other, y'know?" she said with a grin.

Eagerly grasping onto her suggestion like a lifeline, Akane managed a small smile of his own. "How so, Ranma?"

"Well, it might take a while for us to find a cure, right? Now, I sure don't know the first thing 'bout bein' a girl…an' I figure you don't know much more 'bout how to be a guy. So maybe we can teach each other a thing or two in the meantime. Whaddaya think? Sound good?" she asked, surprising herself with how much compassion she was showing the cursed boy.

Akane smiled just a little bit wider. "Yeah, Ranma. It does. I know I'm going to need all the help I can get," he admitted, chuckling softly.

"We got a deal, then?"

"Deal."

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A few repeated faintings, several weeping spells and one especially sound two-on-one thrashing of an endangered Asian mammal later, the Tendo and Saotome families were once again seated together. Ranma and Akane (the latter now dressed in one of his father's gi) had just finished explaining how they would teach one another about their new genders while also devoting as much time as possible to the search for a cure.

"Well then, this isn't so bad. At least the schools can still be joined!" Soun exclaimed cheerily, though his jovial mood was almost assuredly due less to his opinion of the day's events than to the copious amounts of sake he'd been downing since regaining consciousness.

"What! ?" came the dual shouts from the red-haired girl and brown-haired boy, Akane startling himself with the force behind his cry.

"Daddy, what are you saying! ? That's crazy!" Akane protested, staring at his father in disbelief.

"Yeah! What are you…hey, what _are_ ya sayin'? What's all this 'joinin' the schools' stuff about, anyway?" Ranma inquired, frustrated that she seemed to be the only one out of the loop.

All eyes turned to the pigtailed girl, making her instantly ill at ease. "Eh? What'd I say?"

Nabiki regarded her with an amused smirk, as she was clearly enjoying Ranma's discomfort. Kasumi, on the other hand, offered a sympathetic smile. Their father continued to grin giddily, while _her_ father was apparently trying to sneak out of the room unnoticed.

"Oh, no, ya don't, Pop! You sit your big furry butt right back down. I _know_ you've been hidin' somethin' from me, an' you ain't gettin' away 'til I know what it is!" the Saotome girl snapped.

"Why, I'm just a cute, harmless panda!" Genma signed as he rolled around on his back.

"Ha! 'Harmless,' he says. You're a damn walkin' disaster, Pop!" Ranma snarled. "Anyways…so what's the story, Akane? I really hate not knowin' what's goin' on."

"Ranma…" Akane answered guiltily, not quite looking at her, "Dad said that he and your father made a pact before we were even born that their children would join the two schools of Anything Goes…through marriage." Akane's shoulders slumped, anticipating Ranma's reaction.

"M- ma- marriage?" Ranma squeaked.

"Yeah…you know, husband and wife and all that?" Nabiki replied, barely containing her mirth. "Of course, _you'll_ be the wife, but that's a minor detail, right? I'm sure you'll take good care of my _little brother_, won't you?"

"Nabiki!" Akane shouted, shame, embarrassment and an odd sense of protectiveness fueling his rage. "Leave her alone!"

"Hush, Nabiki. Akane and Ranma could both use our support right now. Why don't we save the teasing for later?" Kasumi requested, turning her attention to her transfigured youngest sibling. "I can't even begin to understand how stressful this has been for you, Akane, but lashing out at each other won't help us right now. And I want you to know I'm proud of you for keeping your temper in check as well as you have through everything that's happened. Now, Ranma-"

"Wife? _Wife?_" Ranma cut in. "You want me to get _married! ?_ No way, nuh uh! I can't get married! This is too much!" she denied, growing more frantic with each word.

Suddenly, a massive dark aura erupted, leaving Ranma feeling suffocated by its intensity. Searching the room for its source, she gasped upon seeing the enormous glowering visage of the Tendo patriarch glaring daggers down at her. _'Wha- what the heck is this! ?'_ she wondered, too stunned even to panic.

**"RANMA!" **the giant head of Tendo Soun thundered,** "You made my daughter into my son! You **_**WILL**_** take responsibility! Is. That. CLEAR! ?"**

"Eep! Yes, sir," the pigtailed girl agreed quietly.

"Otou-san! Stop this!" Akane roared, unfazed by his father's display. "It wasn't her fault! It was an accident. She shouldn't be stuck with, with a _freak_ just because of that," Akane finished quietly, turning and dashing out of the house.

"Hey, Akane! Hold up!" Ranma called, jumping to her feet to rush after the long-haired boy.

Watching the pair flee the room, Kasumi felt her usual sense of calm begin to slip. "Oh, my," she sighed.

Having been brushed aside so easily, Tendo Soun's grand show of strength quickly collapsed—not unlike a deflated balloon. His signature attack an abject failure, only one option remained.

"WAAAHHH! My little girl hates me! And she's a boy! WAAAHHH!"

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Ranma soon found Akane sitting by the family's koi pond, gazing down at the water's surface.

"Hey, why'd ya just run off like that?" Ranma called as she approached.

"The spring you fell in…what did it look like? Anything like this?" the dark-haired boy asked.

"Eh…yeah, sorta. A little bigger, I guess. An' not just the one…dozens in all directions. Each with their own 'very tragic story.'"

"'Tragic'…hm. Ranma, I'm sorry for what happened back there. But don't worry, I won't let you be tied down to…someone like me," Akane replied, never shifting his eyes away from the pond.

"Nah, I'm sorry for freakin' out a little back there. Just caught me by surprise is all. So…'someone like you,' huh?" Ranma asked with a sigh as she sat down next to the taller boy. "You know, it's funny. Before today, _I_ was the one who figured nobody would ever want someone like me. I may not like bein' forced into somethin' like this…hell, I hate it! You prob'ly don't like it much better, right? But the way I see it, if either of us hafta be stuck with _anybody_…who better than somebody in the same boat, right?" she offered with a wan smile.

"Heh. That's a pretty thin basis for an engagement, don't you think?"

"Ain't it better than 'just because my pop said so'? 'Sides, your dad's right. You wouldn't be in this mess if not for me. I _should_ take responsibility for totally messin' up your life. So if that means sayin' okay to the whole engagement thing, at least for now…then that's what I gotta do," the redheaded girl replied resolutely.

"But Ranma, you _don't_ 'gotta.' And remember what Nabiki said? She was being a jerk, but she was right. The way things are now, you'd be-" Akane began.

"I know! I know. You don't need to say it. But that's…okay. Anyways, hopefully we'll find a cure an' it won't come to that. An' if it does…well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, yeah?"

"Why are you being so stubborn about this?" Akane asked, his frustration starting to show.

"Didja forget our deal already? I promised to stick with ya until we find a cure, remember? _As long as it takes_…even if it means the rest of our lives. That's kinda like bein' engaged anyway, ain't it?" Ranma finished softly, joining Akane in staring down at her reflection in the pond. To think that something as simple as a little water could change so much.

Their eyes meeting in the water's surface, the Saotome girl and the Tendo boy turned to face each other directly.

Taking Ranma's much smaller hands in his own, Akane gave her a grateful smile. "Thank you so much, Ranma. I don't think I could get through this if you weren't here. And I know we only just met today, but I feel like as long as we're facing this together, we'll be okay...somehow," he said warmly, giving her hands a light squeeze.

The pair of cursed teens soon found themselves getting lost in the closeness of the moment, their eyes searching one another's for something neither even realized they needed. The splash of a koi breaking the water's surface seemed the break the spell as both boy and girl quickly pulled away, their cheeks burning.

_'N- nani? What just happened?' _Ranma wondered, too embarrassed to look at her companion. _'That was _really_ weird. But…nobody's ever smiled at me like that before,'_ she noted in confusion.

Akane wasn't faring much better. Quite the opposite, in fact. _'Gah! I'm not a pervert! I'm not, I'm _not! _But…it would've been so easy just to lean in and- No! Shut up! Not listening!'_ he insisted, though he wasn't especially convinced. Trying to banish that line of thought, Akane jumped to his feet. "W- we should probably head back inside and let them know what we've decided, right?" he suggested anxiously, offering his hand to his new "fiancée."

Ranma looked up at the boy's hand, noting to herself that she certainly didn't need the boy's help in standing. But a glance at the warm but clearly nervous expression on Akane's face convinced her to hold her tongue. _'Okay…maybe just this once,'_ she decided, placing her own hand in Akane's to steady herself as she rose to her feet. "Yeah, let's go," Ranma said with a small smile.

And so the cursed couple returned to the house, marking the beginning of a new life and a new adventure for them both. Their story may not have been an entirely new one, but they could never have imagined all that was in store for them.

Unnoticed by either boy or girl, they walked the whole way back hand in hand.

"Hey, wait a second. That means you _did_ let me take a bath with you even though you're really a boy!"

"Erk. Hang on, Akane…let's talk about this!"

"RANMAAA!"

"WAAAH!"

…Well, _almost_ the whole way.

.

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><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> So there you have it. Like I said, this is a pilot of sorts—in that I'm not yet firmly committed to continuing it. So I tried to end it in a way that might be reasonably satisfying even if there's never any more of it. What did y'all think? Like I said, don't hold back. If it sucks, say so. If you think I should just leave it as is, that's fine. If you'd be interested in seeing more of the trials and tribulations of girl-type Ranma and boy-type Akane, please let me know. I have a pretty clear idea of how the plot would go for the most part, as they try to have something resembling normal lives (under assumed names, playing to the "new life" part of the title). All the while, they're still searching for a cure to the curse…and, of course, dealing with the full complement of Nerima crazies. I have things fairly well sketched out up Nodoka, which I'm thinking would wrap things up.

If you think Akane and Ranma are too out of character here, well, that may be the case. But I figured that Akane never really had a reason to explode at Ranma here, so there was no need for things to be antagonistic between them. Also, Ranma might have been a bit more subdued than usual anyway after realizing she'd quite possibly be spending the rest of her life as a girl. Add onto that the guilt over getting Akane cursed and the desire to keep this newfound friendship from going down the tubes, and I decided that a warm and considerate Ranma was rather plausible. As for Akane, I saw the shock over what happened dulling his temper somewhat, at least in the short term. And I felt that he would be seeing Ranma as something of a lifeline to hold onto in the storm of what would easily be the second-worst day of his life.

I realize I might be pushing the romance angle too quickly, but it really would not progress beyond those sorts of shared blushes and hand-holding moments for some time. And there would definitely be some of the good old-fashioned tsun-tsun bickering to go with the dere-dere cuteness. There's always going to be _some_ friction between those two, but it'll look a lot different here than in canon. For example, I think I'd have a lot of fun playing with Ranma's sense of jealousy over the (decidedly unwanted) feminine attention Akane receives. Lots of entertaining possibilities, right? Or at least I think so. Again, any and all feedback is appreciated. I have a few more pieces in the works, including a couple of other "pilots" like this one, so you should see a few of them in some form over the next couple of months. Thank you for reading!


	2. Chapter 2: Please Take Care of Me!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Ranma ½_. I am not profiting from this story in any way. So there!

**Introduction:** Thanks to all the lovely input I received from the first chapter, I've been slowly working on its follow-up. I humbly apologize for taking so long, as it's now months later than I intended to be finished with it, but I must admit I've been struggling with this chapter. I do hope it's adequate! I had originally planned to return to the first chapter and make significant revisions, but I haven't really been happy with what I've come up with in terms of changes and/or additions. Perhaps I'll re-work the whole story once it's complete to establish a more consistent level of quality throughout. For the time being, I'll leave it as is…for better or worse. (Though I did make some minor touch-ups, including a clarification that Akane took part in pounding Genma after getting cursed.) Anyway, I won't ramble on any further right now, so here you go. Enjoy!

(Special thanks to Noy Telinú and zeltronica for their input once again. Thanks also to Pahhur for additional comments.)

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><p>.<p>

**A New Face, a New Life?**  
>by tuatara<p>

Chapter 2: Please Take Care of Me!

.

"I said not to worry about it, alright?"

"But I really am sorry! You've been so kind and understanding, and yet I blew up at the first _hint_ of something perverted."

"It's fine…you had a bad day. I get it, believe me. Anybody would have a short temper under the circumstances. I'm not gonna hold it against ya or anything," Ranma assured her companion as they moved briskly down the sidewalk the morning after the cursed Saotomes' arrival in Nerima.

"Well, you see…" Akane began hesitantly, "I don't have the best temper in general. But that's mostly because of…er, never mind for now. You'll probably see for yourself soon enough." The cursed boy sighed, resigned to what he was sure would be a daunting day.

"Eh? Whaddaya mean?"

"Don't worry about it," he insisted, eager to change the subject.

"If you say so," Ranma replied uncertainly. "Hey…couldn't we just forget about classes an' focus on findin' a cure?"

"Dad and Kasumi can be pretty stubborn," Akane explained. "There's no way they'd accept something like that as an excuse to avoid going to school."

"Well, it was worth a shot. Oh yeah…your sister said she was leavin' early to 'take care of things.' How's she gonna do that? There ain't no record for a girl Saotome Ranma, at least that I know of, an' they're sure not gonna believe that Tendo Akane became a _guy _over the weekend."

"I know," a wincing Akane admitted, "but Nabiki's…resourceful. When she wants something done, it usually happens. I don't know how she does it—and I'm not sure I want to—but I expect that by the time we get to school, she'll have something arranged for us."

"Really? Prob'ly don't wanna get on her bad side if I can avoid it, then."

"Um…I'm afraid it might already be too late for that, Ranma," Akane offered, guilt evident in his features. "I think she's pretty upset with you and your dad over what happened yesterday. I'll talk to her later, but maybe it would be best just to keep your distance for the time being," he said with a frown.

"Ah, I gotcha. That's no problem. It'd be weirder if she wasn't mad, I guess," the redhead sighed.

"Ranma…"

"Hey, we should hurry, right? Don't wanna be late on the first day o' school!" she called with false enthusiasm as she jumped from the sidewalk to the top of the chain-link fence running alongside it. Rather than slowing down to preserve her balance on such a precarious edge, the cursed girl actually picked up the pace.

Akane was so caught off-guard by her casual display of skill that he was completely distracted from the previous dip in mood. "What the heck are you doing?" he asked, shocked.

"Huh? It's just balance trainin'. Why?" she asked with a curious tilt of her head, never stopping her forward motion.

"Do you think you could teach me to do that? I feel like I could use some help getting used to this body," Akane admitted. "Going by everything I've seen from you so far, you seem to have gotten used to that form pretty quickly. I mean, the way you and the stupid panda- er…the way you and your _father_ were going at it this morning, I would never have guessed it wasn't the body you were born with."

"Nah, you were right the first time. He really is an idiot, ain't he? As for me, I'm just, I dunno…adaptable, maybe? That don't explain how Pop can do so much the way he is now, but I figure all that means is that pandas are a lot more capable than we give 'em credit for," she said with a shrug.

"No, I'm pretty sure pandas can't normally do backflips or spinning kicks," the cursed boy observed. "But you didn't answer my question! Will you teach me?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry. Sure, we can do that. It should help with your coordination. We can start workin' on it after school, 'kay?"

"You mean it, Ranma? You'll really work with me?" Akane asked, his eyes big and hopeful.

"Hey, I said we're in this together, didn't I? Helpin' ya with stuff like that goes with the territory," she said with a grin.

"Thank you, Ranma. I really appreciate it. But you know…you're probably not gonna want to run up there after today, at least not to and from school."

"Uh…why not?"

"Well, once you're in a uniform, you'll give everyone quite a view from up on the fence," the brown-haired boy noted wryly.

"A uniform? You mean…a _girl's_ uniform! ?" Ranma gasped. "Like what Nabiki was wearin'? A, a _dress_ an' everything! ?"

"Sorry, but that's what they'll expect you to wear. And it's not like I'm any better off, you know. Although a boy's uniform'll be a lot less embarrassing than what I'm wearing now," Akane complained, extremely self-conscious over the fact that he was once again dressed in one of his father's old gi. There weren't really any other clothes in the house that fit him, but his eldest sister Kasumi assured him that she would find something else he could wear by the time they returned from school.

Ranma grunted in resignation. She most definitely wasn't pleased by the prospect, but the knowledge that Akane would be dealing with the same thing—or nearly the same, since _obviously_ guys' clothes would be far less embarrassing—made it seem not quite so daunting. "Okay, so I'll have to wear one of…_those_. Fine. I can handle it! But why wouldn't I wanna walk up here anymore? I'm sure it won't slow me down none."

"That's not the problem, baka. Think about it…walking on a high fence…wearing a skirt? You'll be giving everyone a free show!"

"A 'free show'? Hmm…ohhh. Crap! Sorry, not used to thinkin' 'bout this stuff. I guess that's out, then. Man, this whole thing stinks," the Saotome girl said in frustration.

"You don't have to tell me," Akane concurred. Just as he was about to continue, he spotted their destination up ahead: the gates of Furinkan High School. His expression darkened as he spotted a crowd of boys waiting by the entrance.

"Damn it! Those stupid jerks. Well, at least they'll give me a chance to work off a little steam. See, this is why I hate boys!" the long-haired boy growled.

"Huh? Akane? What's goin' on?"

"I'll explain later!" Akane shouted back as he rushed into the crowd.

Ranma looked on, thoroughly confused, as bodies began flying from within the crowd. Her concern spiked until she realized that Akane was the one doing the damage. In a matter of moments, the entrance was fully cleared and the bruised and battered bodies of dozens of male Furinkan students littered the courtyard. Eager for an explanation, Ranma jogged up to Akane's side.

"Hey, what was that all about?" the redhead inquired.

"Boys being stupid perverts…that's what it was about," Akane answered, clearly on edge. "A while back, this, this _jackass_ made an announcement during a school assembly that anyone who wanted to date me had to beat me in 'honorable combat.' So every morning since than, those idiots have been waiting there before class to try and beat me. I hate it!"

"Wow, what a moron. Sounds like somebody needs to teach him a thing or two," Ranma observed.

The Tendo boy gave a derisive snort. "No kidding. But I'm sure you'll get plenty of opportunities. In fact-"

"Halt, knave!" a new voice bellowed out.

"-He should be here any second. Hello, Kuno-senpai. How are you this morning?" Akane greeted acidly.

"Miscreant! Who are you to interfere in a young man's sacred quest to win the heart of his beloved?" a young man called as he appeared from within the midst of arriving students; he was dressed in the traditional hakama of a kendoist, wooden bokuto in hand. "Ah, but is it not customary to introduce oneself first? Presenting the rising star of the kendo world, the Blue Thunder of Furinkan High School…Kuno Tatewaki, class 2-E, age seventeen."

As he completed his introduction, posing dramatically, a flash of lightning streaked across the sky behind him.

"Neat trick," Ranma mumbled to herself.

"Now state your intentions towards the fierce tigress Akane!" Kuno commanded

_'"Fierce tigress"?'_ the pigtailed girl noted in confusion.

Used to such nonsense, Akane merely rolled his eyes. "I can assure you, I don't have any 'intentions' towards Tendo Akane. But I can also assure you that she's NOT interested in you! At. All. In fact, I'd go so far as to say she _hates _you! Besides, you probably won't be seeing her for a while, so you might as well put an end to this stupidity," he said coldly.

"Lies! Lies and slander! Your transparent ploy to rid yourself of competition will not work with me, heathen! You are clearly trying to subvert the will of Heaven by spiriting away Tendo Akane for your own vile ends. I will not stand for it! Prepare yourself!" the older boy roared, charging forth with blindingly fast strikes of his kendo sword.

Not anticipating such a potent attack from the upperclassman, Akane was nearly knocked flat by Tatewaki's opening salvo.

"What the-! ?" Akane gasped as he just barely dodged an onrushing blast of air propelled at unbelievable speed by Kuno's wooden blade.

_'When did he get so_ good_?'_ the cursed boy wondered, shocked. "You…you've been holding back with me all this time, haven't you! ? You total JERK!" he growled, sprinting towards the enraged kendoist.

"Release Akane, fiend!" Tatewaki bellowed, hard pressed to deflect the cursed boy's powerful blows.

"_I_ didn't do anything to her! It's not my fault she's not here!" Akane snapped, frustration mounting that his attacks were failing to make it through Kuno's defenses.

"Bah! The words of such a base deceiver are worthless!" Kuno snarled. "It is time to end this farce. I strike!" With that, the kendoist tore into the cursed boy with even greater ferocity.

_'Damn it!'_ Akane lamented, stumbling under the intensity of Kuno's attack. _'I'm not gonna be able to finish this! He's too fast. I can barely stay on my feet!'_ Indeed, the only thing keeping him standing was his magically increased mass and the greater durability that came with it.

"Enough's enough!" Ranma shouted, impatient to see things brought to a close. Leaping in between the two combatants, she delivered a swift kick Kuno's sword hand, sending his weapon hurtling to impale itself in a nearby tree.

Turning his attention to the red-haired girl who was attempting to interfere with his man-to-man duel, Kuno gaped in shock at the sight of her. "What fire! What passion!" he exclaimed. "How has my glorious self never before laid eyes upon you, O flame-haired beauty? Pigtailed girl, I would date with y-"

The disarmed dolt's distracted declaration was cut short by a fist to the head courtesy of Akane that blew him across the courtyard and into the surrounding wall. The resulting impact crater left a spiderweb of cracks across its surface. Staggering to his feet moments later, Kuno proudly proclaimed, "I fight on!" before collapsing in an unconscious heap.

Satisfied that his opponent was finally down for the count, Akane directed his glare as his redheaded companion. "Why'd you do that, Ranma! ?" he yelled. "That was _my_ fight!"

"Well, you were sure takin' your sweet time!" came the cursed girl's testy reply. "'Sides, looked to me like he caught ya by surprise. Lemme guess…he never went all out on ya like that, huh?"

"I can't believe him! He's just been playing with me all this time! Now what am I gonna do! ?" the chocolate-haired boy complained. "Ranma, will you help me train? I'm…not sure I could've beaten him on my own," he observed, his fists clenched in frustration.

"Uh…yeah, I guess," she replied hesitantly. "But why's it matter? I'm here, right? I can just take 'im out whenever he's a problem. What's the big deal?"

"'What's the big deal?' Seriously? The big deal is that I want to be able to take care of him myself! What, do you think because I'm really a girl, that I don't have what it takes or something?"

"Hey, I never said anything like that! I just figured you wouldn't hafta worry about dealin' with him anymore. So what if he's a bit outta your league?" Ranma asked, genuinely confused.

"Baka! I'm the heir to the Tendo School! I have to have what it takes to deal with idiots like him! He's my problem, not yours!"

"I'd say he's not just your problem anymore, 'little sister,'" a familiar female voice noted.

"Hey, Nabiki," Akane greeted his elder sibling with a sigh. "Did you get everything taken care of?"

"Was there ever any doubt? Now, come inside. The bell will be ringing soon."

The two cursed teens followed the middle Tendo child obediently into the school building.

"By the way…" Nabiki began.

"What now?" Akane replied, still on edge.

"Why did you go after them in the first place?"

"Whaddaya mean 'why'?" he asked irritably. "The perverts attack me every morning! Of course I'm going to fight back!"

"No, they attack _Tendo Akane_. You, on the other hand, could have simply strolled right in without any problem. You might have even avoided ever attracting Kuno-chan's attention. You sure have it now, though—both of you do. Or at least you will when he wakes up."

"…"

"Yeah, I was wonderin' that too," Ranma chimed in. "But I didn't say nothin' 'cause I figured you knew what you were doin'. Maybe I should've after all. Now we're gonna hafta deal with that dumbass botherin' us."

"…Ranma?" Akane replied.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Moments later, Nabiki directed her two companions to an empty classroom. "Here we are. Now that we have all of this morning's pleasantries out of the way, let me be the first to welcome you two to Furinkan High School." With that, she handed them each a sheet of paper detailing their school registration and respective class schedules (that is, the registration and schedules for their new alter egos).

Looking the paper over, Ranma made an expression not unlike if she had just eaten something sour. She turned towards Nabiki in consternation.

"Hey, what's with this? I guess I understand the name ya picked, but why not 'Saotome'? I woulda liked to keep at least that much," she complained.

The brown-haired girl regarded Ranma with a frosty expression. "Well, your father was quite insistent that you not be registered as a Saotome. I didn't get much of an explanation why, but then I'm still getting used to having conversations with a giant panda. So I figured, 'why make it complicated?'"

"What you really mean is that he didn't pay you enough to care. Right?" Akane asked.

Nabiki shrugged.

"And what about me, huh? Why would you change _my_ family name?" he inquired angrily.

"Hmm…so you'd be a matching set, I suppose?"

"Nabiki!"

"C'mon, Akane…you didn't wanna be late, right? We should head to class," Ranma urged, hoping to avoid an argument.

"Fine…but this conversation isn't over, Onee-chan!" Akane promised.

"Yes, yes," his sister called with a dismissive wave of her hand as she headed towards her own homeroom, never bothering to look back. "Oh, and try to simmer down, Akane. You don't want everyone's first impression to be that you're the 'angry boy,' do you? Although there _is_ a market for the fiery, brooding types. A lot of girls like the sense of danger, you know?" came Nabiki's wry observation as she turned the corner and disappeared from view.

"Damn it all…I guess we might as well go face the music, huh?" the cursed boy grumbled.

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><p>.<p>

"Class, there are two announcements this morning," the homeroom teacher for class 1-F began. "First, Tendo Akane has unfortunately had to leave school unexpectedly due to a family emergency. It is not known at this time whether she'll be returning to Furinkan."

The entire class gasped in disbelief. Two girls in particular seemed truly dismayed by the news. And off in one corner, a boy hardly anyone ever noticed looked as if the world had just ended.

"Also, we have two new students joining us this morning. They've just returned to Japan from a trip to China, so let's give them a nice 'Ni hao!'"

Not surprisingly, no one responded to the teacher's suggestion.

The first of two youths standing at the front of the class stepped forward. She was a fairly short girl with shockingly red hair tied back in a pigtail. The girl was dressed in boyish attire, and it was readily apparent to those who paid attention to such things that she was not wearing any type of support for her rather generous assets. Most of the boys were thrilled by this discovery, while the majority of the girls were less than pleased. "Hey. I'm Sao…uh, I'm Tendo Ranko," the redhead began. "I'm the best martial artist around. Pleased to meet ya," she said with a halfhearted wave and a small grin. A number of males in the class couldn't stop themselves from drooling over her easygoing, tomboyish charms.

"Wait…_Tendo_ Ranko?" inquired one of the two girls most visibly disappointed by their classmate's departure. "Are you related to Akane? Do you know what happened?"

"Uh…yeah, Akane's my…cousin. Somethin' came up, so Akane had to leave an' I had to come here. It's complicated, but hopefully she'll be able to come back before too long," "Ranko" explained with a sigh.

The class then turned its attention to the tall boy waiting to introduce himself. The strikingly handsome young man was dressed in martial arts attire that would have seemed odd on most people but somehow felt entirely appropriate on his athletic figure. His long, dark brown hair was tied back in a ponytail, and a number of girls quickly found themselves wishing they could run their hands through it. He seemed nervous, which simply added to his appeal among the class's female students.

_'He looks like a poor, lost puppy,'_ one instantly smitten girl thought, worries over her missing friend Akane having fled as she took in the sight of the hunk before her. Anyone watching her might have imagined seeing little hearts popping into existence above her head. _'Come over here, puppy! I'll take you home with me!'_

"Hello, I'm…Saotome Kaneda," he greeted. "I'm also a martial artist. It's nice to…meet you. I'm in your hands." Akane finished his introduction with a bow.

"Thank you, Tendo-kun, Saotome-kun," the teacher said. "Unfortunately, first day or not, you were still late. Please stand in the hall," he instructed before handing each of them water buckets to carry.

**"AWWW!"** came the loud complaint from nearly the entire class, thoroughly startling the two newcomers.

The pigtailed girl and ponytailed boy trudged out to the hall, buckets in hand, leaving a room full of disappointed students in their wake.

"Could this day get any worse?" Akane asked, unwisely tempting fate.

"No kiddin'. But at least that Kuno-baka prob'ly won't bother us again today. After a punch like that, _anybody_ would be out of it for a while. That was a hell of a hit!"

"You really think so? Thanks, Ranma. I…wanna apologize for getting mad earlier. I know you weren't trying to show me up or anything. You were just trying to help. I really appreciate it, because I don't know what would've happened if you hadn't stepped in."

"Eh, it's not a problem. I ain't gonna get all bent out of shape over somethin' like that. 'Sides, I shouldn't've said that it didn't matter whether you could handle Kuno on your own. I wasn't really thinkin' of how you'd feel about it. If it were me, I'd be ticked off too. I'll train ya so you can take care of that moron, 'kay? You obviously have the strength for it, 'specially now, but I think you'll need to work on your speed and coordination. It's the same stuff we'll need to improve for fence-walkin'," Ranma replied, leaning casually against the wall.

Akane watched the red-haired girl intently as she closed her eyes, seemingly prepared to doze standing up. "Thank you, Ranma," he whispered. "I wouldn't want to be going through this without y-"

"I will not permit it! Such blasphemy shall not go unpunished!" roared the figure rushing towards them.

"Wonderful," Akane sighed, moving into a defensive stance.

Ranma's eyes instantly snapped open as she prepared for an attack. "Huh. _Almost_ anybody, then. Who would've thought he was so durable?"

"Saotome!" Kuno Tatewaki shouted, briefly confusing the cursed couple before they determined he was addressing "Kaneda." His ranting quickly drew the attention of Ranma and Akane's classmates, who all crowded at the doorway to see what was behind the commotion. "Was not one Tendo enough for you! ? Not only have you absconded with the tigress Akane, but you dare to claim the goddess Ranko as your fiancée? I shall free the fair damsels from your vile clutches!"

**"FIANCÉE! ? YOU'RE ENGAGED! ?"** the class thundered in disappointment.

"Guess it could still get worse after all, huh?" Ranma observed. "But how the heck did he find out already?"

"Nabiki! She must've told him," Akane growled. Turning his attention to the oncoming kendoist, Akane answered his allegations. "First, I already told you…I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING TO AKANE! If it were up to me, she'd be here! Second, I didn't 'claim' anyone! Our families decided the engagement, not us!"

Ranma frowned at her companion's words, though she wasn't exactly sure why.

Kuno remained wholly unconvinced by Akane's claims. "Bah! I will not be misled by your wicked words, trickster! Prepare yourself, for your doom is at hand!"

"Will you put a sock in it already?" Ranma snapped, tossing her water bucket at the arrogant upperclassman. "We just wanna get through the day, you jerk! So leave us alone!" The red-haired girl then then took advantage of the distraction and proceeded to punt Kuno down the hall, sending him careening right out through an open window.

As the rest of their classmates gasped in shock, Akane rushed towards the window. "Baka! This is the third floor!" he yelled back to Ranma.

The pigtailed girl's eyes widened. "Oh, crap," she whispered, running to join her fiancé. "Do you see him?" she called.

"Thank goodness, he landed in the pool! But he could still be hurt. Someone needs to get down there right away," the long-haired boy replied, just as he was about to turn and head for the stairs.

"Already on it!" Ranma replied, catching Akane completely by surprise as she leapt from the window to the pool below.

"Ranm- ko!" Akane gasped, watching the cursed girl splash down. Grimacing, he sprinted towards the stairwell.

Down in the swimming pool, Ranma quickly swam to the aid of the dazed upperclassman; Kuno was floating face down, clearly confused about what was going on. Taking hold of him, she moved to drag the boy to the edge of the pool. The contact brought Tatewaki back to his senses, and he instinctively grabbed the nearest object for support. That object just happened to be Ranma's breast.

At about that time, Akane exited the school building and raced to the pool. Before he arrived, however, the surface of the pool erupted in a massive spray of water in all directions as a figure rocketed upward.

"HENTAI!" Ranma screamed, slamming Kuno onto the pool deck and sending him into unconsciousness for the second time that morning. Outraged, Ranma sat down on the deck and tried to calm herself. She turned towards the sound of someone approaching.

"Hey, are you all right?" a dripping Akane asked, having been thoroughly doused when Ranma tossed Kuno out of the pool. Despite his irritation at getting drenched, his first concern was for the redhead's welfare.

"Yeah, no thanks to this idiot over here," she answered, jabbing her thumb in the direction of the unresponsive kenodist. Noticing Akane's state, she asked, "What the heck happened to you?"

"Uh…_you_ happened, actually. When you threw Kuno out of the pool, you splashed water everywhere," the cursed boy explained, waving his arm to draw Ranma's attention to the large puddles all around the pool. "You must've lowered the water level in there by half a meter!" he exclaimed.

"Hehe…oops," Ranma replied with a sheepish grin that quickly slipped from her face. "Well, what're we gonna do now? We're soaked! We can't sit in class like this. So, does that mean we can leave now?" she asked hopefully.

"Of course not! It's our first day, and it isn't even lunchtime yet! We'll just have to go to the office and see if they have any spare clothes on hand. Guess you'll get an early shot at those uniforms, huh?" Akane chuckled.

Ranma paled a bit at his comment. "Aw, man! This sucks."

* * *

><p>.<p>

"You look fine. Don't worry about it."

"I don't really care how I look. I _feel_ like an idiot! 'Sides, this getup's too tight up top and too loose at the hips," Ranma complained.

Akane grit his teeth in annoyance. He was doing his best to bite back an angry retort, as he knew the girl's uniform Ranma currently wore was of the same size as Akane's own had been. "How do you think _I_ feel?" he asked, gesturing to his own ill-fitting attire. "The pants are riding halfway up my calves and I can barely keep the jacket buttoned. I look ridiculous!"

"Y'know," Ranma began as she and Akane sat down under a tree for lunch, "judgin' from the looks you've been gettin', I don't think the girls 'round here would mind an awful lot if you ditched the jacket entirely."

"Ew! Don't say that. I'm trying not to think about that type of stuff," Akane replied with a look of disgust. "And what about you, huh? You must've noticed how the boys can barely keep their eyes in their sockets when they look at you," he observed disdainfully.

"What? Really! ? Oh, jeez. Why'd ya hafta tell me that! ?" the pigtailed girl lamented, shivering.

"I guess we're just going to have to learn to live with that for now, right?"

"…I guess," Ranma concurred, frowning as she dug into her lunch. "Hey, this is really good! Your sister made this?" she asked, her mood brightening dramatically.

"Yeah, she did," Akane said with a sigh. "She's pretty amazing, you know. I always wanted…well, I guess it doesn't matter much anymore."

"Akane?" his companion inquired, concerned.

"It's nothing," the ponytailed boy answered. "So, after classes are over, we'll meet up with Nabiki and go to the store to get our uniforms. But our clothes should have dried by the time we have gym, so we won't have to leave school wearing these stupid outfits."

"Oh, yeah…gym. Hey, I feel like we're forgettin' somethin'…" Ranma noted, trailing off as she spotted a pair of figures approaching. They were two girls from their class, one with dark hair tied back and the other with long, light brown hair hanging freely down her back. Their attention was focused primarily on Ranma, though the shorter-haired of the two stole glances at Akane whenever she thought she might go unnoticed.

"Hi there," her companion greeted when they stood before the sitting couple. "We're from your class. I'm Yuka and this is Sayuri. It's nice to meet you!" she said with a small bow. The short-haired girl, Sayuri, gave a friendly wave.

"Oh, uh…yeah, likewise," Ranma said hesitantly.

Akane watched the redhead silently, unsure of how to act around two of his oldest friends. "H- hey," he mumbled.

"Well! You two have certainly had an eventful first day!" Yuka giggled. "Is life always so exciting around you?"

"Er…somethin' like that," the cursed girl answered. The lone male in the group declined to comment.

"You mind if we join you?" Sayuri asked, her eyes focused on the handsome young man.

Akane groaned internally. "No…not at all," he replied after some hesitation. "Please do."

"Thanks!" she chirped as she and Yuka sat down, facing the two new students.

"Oh, Tendo-san…you might want to sit differently," Yuka explained, giving a meaningful glance towards Ranma's cross-legged pose. "You don't have a lot of experience with skirts, do you? I bet they're kind of inconvenient for a martial artist. And are those _boxers_?"

Akane blushed, looking away.

"Eh? Sit differently?" Ranma asked, looking down at her lap. Yelping, she clamped her legs together. "Oh! Heh. Sorry! Yeah, you could say it's a pretty new thing for me," she explained with a sigh.

"Hey," Akane whispered in her ear, "sit like I am, okay?" He was seated with his knees forward and his legs tucked under himself, as if he were still a girl trying to protect her modesty.

Ranma quickly followed suit, filing away the information as simply one more thing she needed to learn if she wanted to survive this whole "being a girl" thing. "Hey, thanks for tellin' me," she said to Yuka. "An' no need to be so formal. Just call me Ran…ko."

"Sure, Ran…ko," the long-haired girl giggled. "So, aside from Kuno-senpai, how are you liking it here?"

"Uh…well, there ain't _been_ much else so far. But it seems nice enough," Ranma answered, earning a nod from Akane.

"So you had to borrow spare uniforms? I take it they must have only had boys' underwear available," Sayuri observed. "Do you have a change of clothes for gym class this afternoon? I _think_ I have something that'll fit you, Ranko-chan, though the top might, um, be a bit tight." She blushed, embarrassed to be admitting such a thing in front of a cute boy (even if he was technically off the market).

_'Oh, hell. Changing!'_ a wide-eyed Akane realized. Whispering to Ranma again, he noted, "Yeah, I figured out what we were forgetting."

Having caught on as well, a blushing Ranma nodded.

* * *

><p>.<p>

Later, a beet-red Akane stood awkwardly on the soccer field (or football pitch, as the case may be) with the rest of the boys in his class, trying unsuccessfully to pull his borrowed, too-small shirt down to cover the whole of his midriff. "Um…thanks for loaning me these clothes," he said to a shorter boy with shaggy brown hair.

"Don't mention it. Sorry the shorts are so tight, but they're my spares that I've already mostly outgrown…and you're kind of a _big_ guy," the boy, Hiroshi, explained with a grin.

"Yeah," Hiroshi's dark-haired friend Daisuke chimed in, "you're already the envy of every guy in the class. Not only do you show up engaged to the hottest girl in town, but all the girls start falling for you as soon as you walk in the door! And the free show you're givin' 'em all right now is just icing on the cake. Look at them staring!" With that, he pointed to the girls some distance away, most of whom quickly turned their heads to pretend that they hadn't been observing the new boy. A few, however, including a smirking Sayuri, continued watching Akane regardless of the fact they'd been spotted.

Mortified, Akane followed the girls' line of sight down towards his shorts…to find that Hiroshi's clothing did indeed leave little to the imagination. "Gah!" he shouted inarticulately, quickly turning around and hiding the offending region with his hands. "I hate this, I hate this, I hate this…" the cursed boy growled.

"What, are you shy or something?" Daisuke asked, chuckling at Akane's reaction. "How can you be embarrassed when you've got a girl like that? I bet you've **(bleep)** already. Have you **(bleep)**?"

"WHAT! ? NO!" Akane roared.

"Chill, man!" Hiroshi soothed. "It's just us guys, after all. You can tell us. I mean, she _is_ gorgeous, right?"

Seeking out his red-haired fiancée, the Tendo boy watched Ranma demonstrate her superhuman agility on the high jump equipment. She moved with such grace and absolute control over her body that it was easy for Akane to forget she'd only been female for a matter of weeks.

"Yeah…" Akane whispered, not fully aware of what he was saying.

"So spill it already!" Daisuke prodded. "You've probably even **(bleep)** too. Haven't you?"

"What the _hell's_ the matter with you! ?" the cursed boy shouted. "I would never-"

Akane was cut off abruptly as a soccer ball struck him hard in the back of the head, sending him to the ground in a heap and eliciting gasps from his female admirers.

Attracted by the girls' reactions, Ranma turned to see Akane crumpled on the field. As she jogged over to check on him, she heard one of the two boys standing near him ask, "Aren't you supposed to be a martial artist or something? Shouldn't you have been able to dodge that?"

Not bothering to look up from where he lay, Akane replied with a simple "Shut up."

* * *

><p>.<p>

"You alright?" Ranma asked as she walked alongside Akane, who sported a sizable bump on the back of his head.

"For the millionth time, yes! I'm fine," he grunted, making sure not to yell and exacerbate his pounding headache any further.

"You don't really seem like it, little brother," Nabiki observed as she walked along ahead of them. She had accompanied the cursed couple after school while they went to procure their own school uniforms. Indeed, the pair were now finally dressed in uniforms that actually fit them. But _someone_ had to haggle with the tailor over the exorbitant prices, and she was sure Akane wasn't up to the task. And Ranma…as far as Nabiki was concerned, the ex-boy had yet to prove that she was anything other than a hazard to the Tendo family. It was much too early to trust her. But at least the girl presented all sorts of opportunities for profit. Nabiki had spent much of the day making plans on how best to exploit the arrival of "Tendo Ranko" and "Saotome Kaneda." She just needed to make sure she didn't fall victim to any of the madness that clearly surrounded Ranma, as her younger sibling already had.

"Why don't we stop by Dr. Tofu's clinic on the way back?" the middle Tendo child suggested. "I'll explain about the curse, so hopefully he'll be convinced that you're, well, _you_. He can check you out and at least give you an ice pack or something."

"Dr. Tofu! No…no, that's not necessary. Besides, I, I don't want Dr. Tofu to see me this way," Akane choked out, looking away from his sister and fiancée.

Nabiki sighed. "Akane, Tofu-sensei's going to need to know eventually. You might as well get it over with, and it'll be easier if I'm there to back up your story. Plus, I won't even bill you the usual fee for my services."

"You're already charging me two thousand yen for going with us to the tailor! And I don't need to-"

"Hey, Nabiki," Ranma interjected, cutting Akane off, "where's this guy's clinic? Lead the way."

"Just a few more blocks. Follow me," the brown-haired girl replied, walking on.

"Ranma, I already said I don't want- Hey, what are you doing! ? Put me down, damn it!" Akane shouted as the petite redhead threw him over her shoulder, his head throbbing anew.

"Relax, Akane. We'll just let the doc have a look and then we can leave. Agreed? Ow! Hey, those're my ribs you're poundin' on back there!" Ranma snapped, jumping up to the fence along the sidewalk and sprinting to catch up with Nabiki.

The trio soon arrived at their destination, a modest building advertising services in acupressure, acupuncture, and moxibustion. Nabiki regarded her cursed companions with a smirk as Ranma hopped down in front of the entrance to the clinic, the much larger Akane still struggling to break free of the pigtailed girl's grip.

"Are you done struggling, big boy?" she asked her neo-brother. "And yes, I heard all about your little show in gym class. You should really give me some warning in the future so I can set up a proper viewing stand and charge admission."

Akane's cheeks lit up like a neon sign. "N- Nabiki! S- stop talking, _please_," he stammered.

"Well, we can discuss such arrangements later. I'll go in and give the good doctor a heads-up." With that, Nabiki turned and entered the clinic.

"So, you gonna take it easy and just let 'im check you out?" Ranma asked, not yet releasing the ponytailed boy.

"Fine, whatever! Just let me go already, you jerk!" Akane snarled.

"Yeah, yeah," she mumbled, depositing the Tendo boy on the sidewalk. "Man, you really _do_ have a temper, don't ya?"

"W- what the heck do you mean by 'temper,' huh?" he sputtered angrily, wincing as he aggravated his headache again. Abashed, he massaged the lump on his head. "Er…yeah, I guess I do. But you shouldn't go tossing me around like a sack of rice or something! And I did warn you this morning, you know. I just get so mad sometimes that-"

"Akane? Is that really you?" a voice called from behind the couple as a hand came down on Akane's shoulder, sending both teens leaping away from the sudden intrusion.

Spinning around, they found themselves facing a dark-haired, bespectacled man in a black gi. "Oh, I'm sorry for startling you," he said with a gentle smile.

"That's fine, Tofu-sensei. We were just talking about something. And yeah…it's me," Akane confirmed with a sigh, not able to meet the doctor's gaze. "Nabiki told you all about the curse, huh?"

"She did. I've heard tales of Jusenkyo before, but I've never seen the proof of its power firsthand. And you must be Ranma?" Dr. Tofu asked, turning his attention for the moment to the red-haired girl. "I'm Ono Tofu, the local chiropractor. It's a pleasure to meet you." He gave a polite bow.

"Oh, uh…yeah, nice to meet you too," Ranma answered, scratching the back of her head in minor discomfort at the doctor's actions. "Hey, I don't s'ppose you know of a cure, do ya?"

Tofu shook his head regretfully. "No, I'm afraid not. But I can promise you that I will start researching the subject right away. If I find anything that seems promising, I will be sure to let you know immediately."

"Thanks," Akane replied. "That's as much as we can ask."

"I'll see you at home, Akane," Nabiki noted, popping up behind the the doctor. "Don't give Tofu-sensei a hard time. You two stay out of trouble, you hear me?" she said with a grin as she departed.

"So, I'm told you got a nasty bump today, Akane. Not getting into more fights, are you?" Tofu inquired with a knowing look.

"Fights? Me? Hehehe. Of course not! I mean, at least not in the last few, um…hours," the long-haired boy said sheepishly.

"Well, let's head inside and look you over. Nabiki suggested I should probably check you out in general to make sure this transformation hasn't done anything harmful to you, and I agree. You too, if you'd like, Ranma," Dr. Tofu advised.

_'Nabiki did?'_ Akane thought, shocked that his older sister would show such concern.

"Eh…sure, I guess so, Doc," Ranma replied warily, before following the doctor and her fiancé into the building.

* * *

><p>.<p>

"That guy's a martial artist, ain't he?" Ranma inquired, walking with Akane as they headed back to the Tendo home.

"How could you tell?" asked her companion, holding a cold compress to his head.

"He snuck up on us without even really tryin' to. He's gotta be pretty skilled to do that."

"Yeah, he's one of the best I've ever seen. But he's so unassuming that you wouldn't think he'd be that good. Whenever I've gotten injured in training or something, I've always gone to him. He's…a good friend of the family," Akane explained, frowning.

The cursed boy's mood didn't go unnoticed. "How come you were so worried about the doc seein' ya like this?" Ranma asked. "Do you…?"

"Please just forget about it, okay?" he requested, cutting her off. "It's not important now."

Ranma placed her hand on the taller boy's shoulder in an attempt at comfort. "I'm sorry for screwin' things up for ya, Akane," she sighed. "But I promise we'll get through this one way or another. You believe that, right?"

"…Right. One way or another," Akane agreed, offering a sad smile.

"Hey, enough mopin' for today. How 'bout when we get back to the dojo we work on your control in that body? The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get started on balance training. Whaddaya say?" she suggested with a grin.

The Tendo boy found her optimism infectious. "Thank you, Ranma. That sounds perfect. Let's go!" With that, Akane raced for home.

"Ha! Think you can beat me, do ya?" the cursed girl shouted. "Well, Saotome Ranma don't lose!"

"Yeah? What about Tendo Ranko?" her fiancé called back.

"Nah, she don't either!" Ranma replied, laughing as the pair disappeared around the corner.

.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> The chapter title is, as some readers surely know, a reference to the common greeting for transfer students in anime and manga. I originally intended to have Akane actually speak the line during his introduction, but it didn't quite seem to fit. But I thought I might as well at least leave it in as the title. As mentioned in the introduction, I've had some trouble with this installment and I'm still not completely happy with it. The school stuff was kind of grueling for me…which was problematic, since that was most of the chapter. However, I didn't want to drag out posting this any longer than I already have. Hopefully the chapter works well enough for now, and I'll continue trying to improve it in the future. Also, future chapters will deviate further from canon as changes compound—but certain moments will still show up in one form or nother.

"Tendo Ranko" is of course the obvious choice, especially since Genma wanted as little evidence as possible that she was a Saotome (for reasons I'm sure y'all can guess). "Saotome Kaneda," on the other hand, is inspired by various earlier boy-type Akane stories. I thought long and hard on a unique name for Akane that made sense and didn't seem pretentious, and I just couldn't come up with one that I liked. Apologies to Noy Telinú for not using any of the generous name suggestions! But if anyone else has one that they're convinced is truly better, PM me! I just might change his name here if it's compelling enough…or I might use it the next time I need a male name for Akane in a story. Which will be soon, actually.

I'll be starting one more story before I get back to this, but I'm quite certain the gap between chapters won't be nearly so long next time. Thank you so much for reading, and don't hesitate to offer any suggestions for how I can make this story better. Be well, everyone!


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